Blackberry Abandons Plan To Sell Itself to Fairfax Financial Holdings

Shares fall 13 percent after the announcement

Shares in struggling smartphone maker Blackberry have fallen 13% after it announced it had abandoned a plan to sell itself to its biggest shareholder, Fairfax Financial Holdings.

Instead, it intends to raise $1bn (£627m) in fresh financing.

Chief executive Thorsten Heins will step down and former Sybase chief executive John Chen will serve as interim chief executive.

Last month, Blackberry reported a second-quarter net loss of $965m.

Those losses were blamed on poor sales of its new smartphone, the Z10.